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Welcome to Need to Know—Because a Woman Can’t Be Too Informed
Dating in D.C. is like navigating an apocalyptic wasteland populated by men in expensive suits with zero mating potential. Need to Know provides all the information a savvy single woman like you needs to avoid dating disasters.
By night, Jordan McAdam is the proprietor of a popular website that rates D.C.’s hottest bachelors—everything from how quick they are to email you back, to their skills in the sack. She’s been burned once too often to accept any man at face value. By day, her job as an office temp puts her in the perfect position to do a little fact-checking on her rich and powerful subjects. When her latest assignment brings her face-to-face with the sexy but mysterious Forest Redder, Jordan decides to do a little “hands-on” research of her own. To Jordan, he seems like the perfect man—but she knows there is no such thing. Moreover, there’s a big problem: Forest knows Jordan’s the woman behind the scandalous site—and Jordan knows he knows. Will he expose her secret—or find his own posted on Need to Know?
Contemporary, sexy stories for sassy women.
Cosmo Red-Hot Reads from Mills & Boon
Dedication
For my beautiful, smart and fierce niece, Jennifer.
Welcome to the working world. This one’s for you!
Dear Reader,
I’m so excited to be a part of the new Cosmo Red-Hot Reads from Mills & Boon! The collaboration of Mills & Boon and Cosmopolitan is the perfect place for my sexy couple, Jordan and Forest.
Starting a new job and new life is rough for all of us, but for Jordan, creating an anonymous website to help other women manoeuvre the rough Washington, D.C., dating game is her dream. But nothing prepares her for Forest. He’s the man who changes everything, and we’ve all met one of those. He’s a smart and successful businessman who wants to know her secrets. She has to outrun him, but truth is, she’d much rather he catch her.
Thank you for picking up Everything You Need to Know. I love Forest and Jordan, and hope you do, too! You can visit me at www.helenkaydimon.com to learn a little more about them and get a peek at what (and who) inspired the book.
HelenKay Dimon
Everything You
Need to Know
HelenKay Dimon
Contemporary, sexy stories for sassy women.
Cosmo Red-Hot Reads from Mills & Boon
Contents
Chapter One
Subject Report on Ryan Peterson: Spent entire date talking about Ryan—yes, he refers to himself in the third person. When he drove me home and I refused to sleep with him on the first date, he urinated on my front porch. Run from this blowhard. —Member 121
Need to Know admin staff: Confirmed blowhard.
JORDAN MCADAM LOOKED across the conference-room table at Ryan Peterson and fought the urge to roll her eyes. An “oh my God, shut up!” comment begged to escape her lips whenever he opened his mouth, which was every ten seconds.
The guy’s personality consisted of being pompous, loud and loaded. That last one appeared to be his only positive attribute. Not to Jordan. No, she’d dated enough powerful Washington, D.C., types to place the entire metro area in dating lockdown. She’d limit her choices to a pool of males from at least two states away from now on.
Day Four in Ryan’s presence. She’d confirmed the major complaints about him by the end of the first afternoon, but had yet to find one redeeming quality to include in the follow-up report for her website. When she’d started Need to Know, she’d known the dating world could be physically and emotionally dangerous for women. She never dreamed it resembled an apocalyptic wasteland populated with guys in business suits who possessed zero social skills when it came to handling strong women.
After reading the comments website members had posted about their dates, Jordan no longer worried about her relatively solitary existence. If her choices came down to Ryan, or that guy Ted who one member said spent most dates sending hate texts to his ex, or if she had to pick any of Ryan’s or Ted’s businessmen friends, she’d continue to limit her bedroom activities to Mr. Fancy, her bright purple vibrator.
Ryan leaned back in his chair and tapped his gold pen against the lined legal pad in front of him. When he exhaled, his stomach relaxed, pushing over the top of his black belt, which was never a good look on a man, money or not, and certainly not on a thirtysomething. “The meeting this afternoon is important.”
As if she cared. She’d taken the temp job to double-check the website reports on Ryan, since they seemed so out there for a grown man. “Yes, sir.”
“I need to make a good impression.” He made the comment while he coughed without covering his mouth. “Nothing can go wrong.”
As far as she could tell, the only chance for success hinged on Ryan skipping it. “I understand.”
The rumors racing through the employee cubicles over the past few days hinted at management problems. Something about a silent partner wanting out and money being tight, despite Ryan’s bright red might-as-well-advertise-you-have-a-small-penis convertible parked in the coveted space right by the elevator in the downstairs garage. Then there was the expensive office suite on K Street, D.C’s power-broker row.
Ryan sure did like to play the game.
He spun his chair around and stared out the eleventh-floor window to the busy street below. “You’ll need to stay late this evening. Ryan needs this deal done.”
There was the third-person thing again. In her view, Ryan needed medication. And a reality check...and maybe a few hours with a financial planner before he dragged his daddy’s once-successful construction firm into bankruptcy. “Of course, sir.”
Ryan grinned at her over his shoulder. “Maybe you can find us some dinner.”
Right, because